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It has now been two weeks, and the PSU affair is still, almost universally, treated as a localized problem in a small town in Pennsylvania involving mistreatment of kids (not players, not students). But that’s not what the Penn State crisis is: Penn State is just the place where a much more pervasive sickmess was [...]
Archive for the ‘Sports’ Category
November 20th, 2011
November 15th, 2011
Category: Occupy Wall Street, Sports
This afternoon I went down to the campus protest rally (part of the strike called for today to demand increased funding for higher education in California). It so far has scored only one helicopter, and that since I left. Everyone was there: the drum and dancing group, the “Free Leonard Peltier” people, some really mysterious [...]
November 15th, 2011
Category: MSM (mainstream media), Sports
Soccer fans do not idolize mere team managers like Paterno.
November 12th, 2011
To review: as everyone has observed, a list of individuals (not yet complete, certainly) acted and passived criminally and/or despicably. And it is equally true that not all of Paterno’s or even Spanier’s career behavior has been despicable or even mediocre; indeed, adding to the dimensions of the tragedy, they did a lot of good [...]
November 7th, 2011
Category: Popular Culture, Sports
And then 1975: “Joe, they told me you was washed up.” “They told you wrong, pretty boy.” He never got the accolades that Ali did, and never had the popularity of Foreman. And maybe he didn’t deserve it. But he carried himself with dignity, even as Ali grotesquely slandered him as an Uncle Tom. And he did [...]
November 7th, 2011
I read Charles Clotfelter’s very thoughtful, data-rich, book about college sports (mostly football, of course) this weekend. It has a whole chapter reflecting on the extraordinary manifestations of fan loyalty to this or that team, including lifetime allegiance beginning not just as an undergrad but at birth and imbued by family, and some confusion between [...]
November 1st, 2011
If you look up the term “anti-charismatic” in the new Oxford English multimedia dictionary, you get the left-side video in this Bloggingheads video. My friend Don Taylor, who teaches public policy at Duke, benefits from the comparison. Oh yeah. his terrific book “Balancing The Budget is a Progressive Priority” is available here.
October 30th, 2011
Well, not quite a chat, but a fundraiser at my colleague Ken Klee’s house. (Ken and Elizabeth are old friends, both being law professors who specialize in bankruptcy). There were about 30 people there. The obvious reactions are those that many have had: she is very dynamic and intelligent. She has thought through the campaign [...]
October 3rd, 2011
Hank Williams, Jr. of Monday Night Football-bad-theme-song fame compared Obama with Hitler, an analogy so outrageous that it was too much even for Fox & Friends. Less than four hours later, ESPN fired him. Good for them. It is so obvious that Williams should be replaced by the Dixie Chicks that I’m not even sure [...]
September 28th, 2011
Category: Sports
It’s hard to believe someone isn’t scripting this stuff. Tonight, the very last of the season, both wildcard slots were in play in four games. St. Louis blew off .346 Houston early. Boston was up against the worst team in its division, while Atlanta and Tampa Bay were facing the best teams in baseball. Obviously, [...]
